Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/360

348 science, while the latter he calls concrete. The theories of Massaryk are approached by those of Braga, who separates sociology into abstract and concrete, although the concrete are for him the special social sciences. It is easy to understand that Massaryk and Braga, while to some extent followers of Comte, perceived the great complexity which the system of the master brought into sociology. They sought to correct it, but succeeded only indifferently. To sociology there remained a field too extensive for the possibility of an exact and particularized elaboration.

These problems were discussed for the first time in Italy in the works of Vanni, who opened the way for various others, among whom is Dionysius Anzilotti, who wrote an important work on the Filosofia del diritto e la Sociologia. Anzilotti discusses the respective values of the system of Mill and that of Auguste Comte. He shows a profound acquaintance with the French, English and German scientific movements, and concludes like Vanni by embracing, with some slight modifications, the system of Mill. This, I understand, is the system accepted by Small and Giddings.

The science of law is different from all the other special social sciences in this, that it has certain general problems which need particular study before they can be subjected to a general and sociological synthesis. Hence it is that this discipline which occupies itself with the more general juridical questions belongs, with respect to sociology, to the group of juridical sciences, but with respect to the latter assumes a superiority greater than that accustomed to be met with in the special social sciences. But juridical philosophy distinguishes itself from sociology, not only by the degree of the complexity of the object studied, but also by the nature of that object, and by the elements which concur to form it. To the philosophy of law, as a derivative science, belongs the inseparable necessity of gathering its data, as well from the sciences which study man, as from those which study society. Any one-sided study which could never give a just and complete acquaintance with the factors